Borders, Police, and Jobs: Viewing Latino Immigration through a Social Spatial Lens

Abstract

An estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants now live in the United States, prompting calls for law enforcement crackdowns and pleas for stringent immigration controls. Social workers and agencies lack the resources to address the needs of this population and are often hindered in service delivery efforts by local anti-immigrant ordinances. This article argues that the sociological theory of social space can be used within a person-in-environment analysis to scrutinize the imbalances of power propelling migration by impoverished populations worldwide and to frame approaches for work with this population at the mezzo and micro levels. Sociologist Henri Lefebvre's tripartite conceptualization of social space is advocated because of its potential to delineate the spatial practices inherent in the question of immigration.